This invention relates to a method of reducing the content of the meta isomer of a halo substituted toluene in a mixture with other isomers. In particular, it relates to exposing the mixture to a brominating agent under conditions such that the meta isomer is preferentially brominated.
Commercial parachlorotoluene (PCT) is made by chlorinating toluene. After distilling off the unreacted toluene and most of the orthochlorotoluene (OCT), the product is primarily PCT, but small amounts of metachlorotoluene (MCT) and OCT are also present, typically about 0.5 to about 1 wt % MCT and about 0.5 to about 1 wt % of the OCT. PCT is used as an intermediate in the preparation of pharmaceuticals, paint pigments, herbicides, and other chemicals. While the presence of small amounts of the OCT is usually innocuous, it has been found that the presence of MCT can deleteriously affect the properties of the chemicals made from PCT. Unfortunately, the boiling point of MCT is close to the boiling point of PCT and the two isomers cannot be easily separated.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,058, herein incorporated by reference, a chlorotoluene isomeric mixture is chlorinated in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst at a temperature of 0.degree. C. up to the boiling point of the mixture. The MCT chlorinates to dichlorotoluene to a much greater extent than does the OCT or the PCT. The PCT-OCT mixture is then separated from the higher boiling dichlorotoluenes (DCT) by distillation.